An English Teacher

APPRAISALS AND CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS IN “WE WILL NOT GO DOWN” SONG LYRIC

Riko Arfiyantama, Post Graduate Student of Semarang State University

NIM: 0204511015

Lecturer: Dr. Djoko Sutopo M.Pd.

ABSTRACT

This research aims to analyze a phenomenal song entitled “We will not Go Down” which is composed by Michael Heart. The song has to do with Gaza war which involved Palestinians and Israelis’ conflict. It is undertaken to find out; the composer’s attitudes, the social relation among the participants, the context of the situation, and the power relation in the discourse. The object of the study is obtained from the whole lyric. Then it is analyzed through Appraisals and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) by connecting every single line to the political and social context in Gaza. Finally, the conclusion shows that 1) the composer condemns the aggression, 2) he also supports the casualties of the war, 3) he explicitly describes what was happening in Gaza, and 4) the song is only a humanitarian song which describes the situation in Gaza and he intends to give and gain support for Palestinians though this song.

In 2009, almost all people in the world gave their attention on the humanitarian tragedy in Palestine (Gaza). Israel, Palestine’s neighbor country, had undertaken many aggressions to Gaza Palestine. Many casualties from both parties could have been inevitable. There were many bombings and almost a hundred of people dead each day. This Israeli aggression belonged to one of the massive wars since the World War II had occurred. Many of leaders and other countries gave their respects and caviled at what Israeli did. However, this endless conflict which was started from their ancestors seemed endless because the problem arises from their own strong beliefs. Thus the both countries were very difficult to stop their aggressions. Israeli leaders seemed ignoring all the criticisms addressed to them although most of casualties were from civilians and children resulted from the war.

The news of Israeli’s aggressions spread very quickly to all Medias over the world. It gained sympathies from volunteers to come and help them. Most of them gave the food supplies, medicines, secondary clothes, and etc. However, for some authors, composers, or artists, they embodied their respects by writing on the Medias or composing a song to express their sympathy. The last attempt is one of some powerful ways to express one’s solidarity to Palestine. Of course, everybody never forgets a very famous song entitled “We will not Go Down” which is played when the humanitarian tragedy is broadcasted on televisions. The song is written by a European and American composer named Michael hearts to condemn the aggressions. This slow-bit song has a power to describe the Palestinians’ suffer and pain that time. Some of people may not know how the song actually negotiates the social relationship and tells the listeners how the composer feels about the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza. Therefore I use the critical discourse analysis to examine the song which describes the social inequality of the humanitarian tragedy. However, in this article, I limit my analysis on the system of interpersonal meaning or called appraisal to evaluate what happened, the people’s character and their feeling (Fairclough, 1989) (Martin & Rose, 2003: 22).

The previous studies of discourse analysis on song have been conducted by some researchers. Abrahamsson (2011) was examining the gender roles of in pop lyrics of Lady Gaga’s album. She analyzed the roles and the interests of listening to her music. Another research is done by Thompson (2002) who did the Critical Discourse Analysis tools of ideology, discourse and binary opposition to demonstrate how world music is constructed in music education. The analysis reveals an ideology of difference underpinning a number of binary oppositions constructed between world music and European music in relation to their surrounding cultures, musical functions, pedagogies and placements in the curriculum. Different analysis also used by Nhamdi O. Madichie (2011), he studied paper seeks to highlight hip-hop’s contribution to the entrepreneurship and place marketing literature. Some of the researches reveal the discourse analysis related to Gender, Education, and marketing. The finding and the result of the studies show that there is a discursive situation between the text and the context.

However the existing researches do not reveal or describe the negotiating attitudes of the composer in writing the lyrics dealing with the world situation. Therefore, this research is undertaken to find out: 1) How the song writer negotiates his attitudes toward the situation by analyzing the affect, judgment, and appreciation? 2) How is the social relation among the participants realized in discourse? 3) How is the context of the situation realized by discourse? 4) How is the power relation in the discourse?

The objectives of the study is; to know the song writer’s negotiating attitudes toward the situation, to find out the social relations among the participants, to interpret the context of situation, and to describe the power relation realized on the lyrics.

Gaza Song – We will not Go Down

During the war in Gaza, Michael Heart wrote a humanitarian song entitled “We will not Go Gown (Song for Gaza)” in January 2009. It is written in order to support of the Palestinians victims from the Israeli Aggression. The song was very well-known in all over the world because it is spread as a free MP3 which means it can be downloaded without any charge. It has been downloaded by over half a million people from the official websites and not yet counted from other websites. More than 500 new clips have been made with “We Will Not Go Down” by people all over the world, and thousands of websites have uploaded the clip and posted the lyrics. As the first release, the official video on YouTube has viewed by over one million people within the first month. And the appreciations of the song are very high since the statistic shows that over 10,000 e-mails, comments, and messages are sent to respond this song. In addition, the song has also been translated into a dozen languages and subtitled on numerous clips.

Michael Heart, the composer of Gaza song, is Syrian American singer-songwriter, recording artist, guitarist and audio engineer based in Los Angeles, CA. He was born in Syria and raised in Europe (Switzerland and Austria) and the United States. He has released many singles, but the Gaza song is a very phenomenal hit which makes his name famous internationally.

Besides his popularity achieved from the song, he also received some critiques. The first, of course, comes from the Israeli politician because they would get the disadvantages from it. Besides that, many people also claimed that Heart is a follower of any particular religion. Therefore, to encounter that, Heart explained that the song has nothing to do with religion. It is only a humanitarian song in nature. Based on the above explanation, it can be drawn to the conclusion that how phenomenal this song so it can gain many respects, responds, or claims from many people around the world.

However, the statistic of how famous the song is only the explicit power that the lyric posses. Certainly, there is a power which lies behind the text or beyond the lyric composed by Heart. Here is the lyric which is discussed in this study:

WE WILL NOT GO DOWN (Song for Gaza)

Length: 3 minutes 12 seconds

A blinding flash of white light

Lit up the sky over Gaza tonight

People running for cover

Not knowing whether they’re dead or alive

They came with their tanks and their planes

With ravaging fiery flames

And nothing remains

Just a voice rising up in the smoky haze

We will not go down

In the night, without a fight

You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our schools

But our spirit will never die

We will not go down

In Gaza tonight

Women and children alike

Murdered and massacred night after night

While the so-called leaders of countries afar

Debated on who’s wrong or right

But their powerless words were in vain

And the bombs fell down like acid rain

But through the tears and the blood and the pain

You can still hear that voice through the smoky haze

We will not go down

In the night, without a fight

You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our schools

But our spirit will never die

We will not go down

In Gaza tonight

(Composed by Michael Heart)

Copyright 2009

Appraisal

In interpreting social discourse, the term appraisal comes first as a discourse analysis. It evaluates the text by using a system of interpersonal meanings. Martin & Rose (2003: 22) state that “we use the resources of Appraisal for negotiating our social relationships, by telling our listeners or readers how we feel about things and people (in a word, what our attitudes are).” Here attitudes have to do with evaluating things, people’s character and their feelings. There are three basic options for appraisal. They are attitudes, amplification, and source. However as stated in introduction, this study limits the scope its object by analyzing the attitudes of the song composer only.

Martin and Rose (2003: 25) classify three kinds of attitudes as follows;

1) Expressing of feelings (affect)

Affect is the way we explore how people express their feelings in discourse. There are two general ways in affect. Firstly, affect can be positive or negative. Positive indicates people have good feelings; meanwhile negative has to do with the bad feelings. Secondly, affect can be expressed directly or implied since people can express their feeling directly, or sometimes they do it indirectly from their behavior. Table below can explain further. The example is taken from Helena’s story:

Positive

We were ecstatic.

We even celebrated.

Negative

I was torn to pieces.

I can’t explain the pain and bitterness in me.

Direct

Emotional state

Ecstatic

Wild consuming fear

Physical expression

Withdrawn

Shake uncontrollably

Implicit

Extraordinary behavior

Wander from window to window

Rolls this way, that side of the bed

Metaphor

Ice cold in a sweltering right

Eyes… dull like the bed

Table 1

2) Judging people’s character

In line with affect, judgements of people’s character can be positive or negative, and they may be judged explicitly or implicitly. However, judgements differ between personal judgements of admiration or criticism and moral judgements of praise or condemnation. The table below is the brief explanation and example of character’s judgement from Helena’s story.

direct

Implied

Personal

Admire

Bubbly, vivacious, energetic, intelligent, popular

He was working in a top security structure.

Criticize

What’s wrong with him?

… I can’t handle the man anymore!

I can’t explain the pain and bitterness in me when I saw…

Moral

Praise

Their leaders have the guts to stand by their vultures…

I envy and respect the people of the struggle…

Condemn

Our leaders are too holy and innocent. And faceless.

… ‘those at the top’ were again targeting the next ‘permanent removal from society’ …

Table 2

3) Appreciating things

Appreciating things have to do with the ‘things’ or we can assume that how people feel about people and the way they behave. In other words, how are our attitudes about ‘things’ such as about TV shows, films, books, CDs; about paintings, sculptures; about plays, parades; or feelings about the nature for that matter. As with affect and judgement, things can be appreciated positively or negatively. To make it clearer, see the examples below:

Positive

A beautiful relationship

A very serious issue

Healing of breaches

Redressing of imbalances

Restoration of broken relationshipsNegativeMy unsuccessful marriage

A frivolous question

Broken relationships

The community he or she has injured

Table 3

Critical Discourse Analysis

In creating a text, people always consider the context. Texts can have different meaning if they are placed in the different contexts. Therefore, discourse analysis is undertaken by researches to examine the relationship between them. There something is questioning is what critical discourse analysis (CDA) actually. Here Dijk (1998) states that:

“Critical Discourse is a type of discourse analytical research that primarily studies the way social power abuse, dominance, and inequality are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context. With such dissident research, critical discourse analysts take explicit position, and thus want to understand, expose, and ultimately resist social inequality. (Dijk, 1998: 352)”

As stated above, it is clear that critical discourse deals with the analytic research and examines text in the social and political context. This analysis is in line with this thesis because the humanitarian tragedy of Gaza involves both the political and social context although the last context is much influencing to the lyrics. Moreover by conducting CDA, text can be taken into an explicit position to draw the social inequality such as what lies beyond the composing the song or what the composer feels.

CDA is not merely an approach in discourse studies, but it can also offer a different “mode” or “perspective” of theorizing, analysis, and application throughout the whole field. In discourse, we can observe a different perspective or even deeper understanding than other areas such as pragmatics, conversation analysis, narrative analysis, rhetoric, stylistics, sociolinguistics, ethnography, or media analysis, among others.

Furthermore, there are three inter-related processes of analysis tied to three inter-related dimensions of discourse proposed by Faiclough’s (1989) model of CDA. They are (1) the object of analysis (including verbal, visual or verbal and visual texts), (2) The processes by means of which the object is produced and received (writing/speaking/designing and reading/listening/viewing) by human subjects, (3) the socio-historical conditions governing these processes.

In analyzing the three dimensions stated above, we require different kinds of analysis. The first stage is text analysis (description), the second stage is processing analysis (interpretation), and the last stage is social analysis (explanation). By following these stages, we can get what accompanies the text throughout the whole field.

In addition, Dijk (1998) suggests in some requirements which should be fulfilled in conducting CDA satisfactorily. (1) As is often the case for more marginal research traditions, CDA research has to be “better” than other research in order to be accepted. (2) It focuses primarily on, social problems and political issues, rather than on current paradigms and fashions. (3) Empirically adequate critical analysis of social problems is usually multidisciplinary. (4) Rather than merely describe discourse structures, it tries to explain them in terms of properties of social interaction and especially social structure. (5) More specifically, CDA focuses on the ways discourse structures enact, confirm, legitimate, reproduce, or challenge relations of power and dominance in society.

In the term of discourse analysis and CDA, they are very different in the process, perspective, focus, and result. Discourse analysis (DA) usually focuses on the text analysis in a simpler way than CDA. DA cannot cover what CDA investigates because CDA deals with the social problem which varies and should be conducted by exploring all the aspects and fields which influence and take part on the text.

Methods

In examining the song, I use the three inter-related processes of analysis tied to three inter-related dimensions of discourse proposed by Faiclough’s model of CDA. Thus, I have done the stages as follows; the first action is the stage of analyzing text (description), the second is the stage of processing analysis (interpretation), and the third is the stage of social analysis (explanation).

The analysis starts by analyzing the text based on kinds of attitudes. Then it observes the social relation among the participants realized in discourse, the context of the situation realized by discourse, and the power relation in the discourse. In examining ‘We will not Go Down’ lyric, I use Martin and Rose theories on appraisals, Fairclough, and Van Dijk. Their theories on discourse analysis and CDA are very much sufficient to analysis such lyric and formulate the findings. Besides, I also try to describe the situations and conditions when the song is famously booming on the world. Thus I include some other sources to support them.

Analysis and Discussion

Appraisal Analysis

As explained above, attitudes have to do with what happened, the people’s character and their feeling. As Heart’s statements, the song is written in the aim to give the support of Palestinians. However, some people argued that this song is composed to condemn Israeli’s aggression in Gaza. Which one is true or both? To answer the questions, see the analysis of the attitudes below.

1) Expressing of feelings (affect)

By realizing affect in the text, how the composer expresses his feeling in discourse can be revealed. There are two types of affect found in the analysis. They are good feelings (positive) and bad feelings (negative). However, the result shows imbalance between the positive and negative. Only two positive affects exist in the text. Meanwhile the negative ones dominate almost the whole of the lyric with 19 expressions. It indicates that the song-writer wants to show how sad the situation is and uses it as the power to persuade no more aggressions. Thus, it can be drawn clearly to the conclusion that it’s not a happy song because most of feelings are negative such as:

People running for cover

Not knowing whether they’re dead or alive

They came with their tanks and their planes

With ravaging fiery flames

And nothing remains

Murdered and massacred night after night

But their powerless words were in vain

And the bombs fell down like acid rain

But through the tears and the blood and the pain

And etc.

Besides the positive feelings and negative ones, expressions can be direct or explicit. How the composer feels or describes the situations can be examined by analyzing from those points. As the result of the analysis, it shows that there are 12 direct expressions and 6 implicit expressions. Meanwhile the direct expressions are divided into 6 emotional states and 6 physical expressions. Then implicit ones are also shared exactly the same with 3 extraordinary behaviors and 3 metaphors. As the conclusion of direct and implicit expressions, they indicate that the composer tends to show his feelings about the situation directly rather than implicitly. The reason why composer chose so is because he assumes that all people have known the real situation and no need to hide the fact.

2) Judging people’s character (judgement)

In judgement, how the composer judge the people’s character can be realized in discourse. In line with affect, judgements can be positive or negative. But unlike affect, the judgements differ between the personal judgements and moral judgements. While, personal judgements have to do with admiring (positive) and criticizing (negative). Then moral ones have to do with praising (positive) and condemning (negative). As the result of the analysis, there is a significant difference in the use of personal judgements and moral ones. Because this song deals with the world’s issue, the composer does not use any personal judgements. Therefore the moral judgements dominate fully throughout the whole lyric.

In the interpretations, the composer of “We will not Go Down” mostly condemns on moral ground. It is proven by 19 condemns found in the text. While he only praise twice in these expressions:

We will not go down

But our spirit will never die

Thus it can be taken to the conclusion that mostly the composer condemns the Israeli aggression in Gaza. He also expresses them directly to prove what was happening. The data shows that 16 expressions from 19 expressions are direct condemns. While the implied ones are the rest with 3 expressions. It means that the composer, Michael Heart, directly condemn by using the direct expressions to judge the characters.

3) Appreciation

From the data analysis, it can be seen that most of the appreciations are negative. It indicates that the composer figures out that the people told in the story have the negative behaviors. The expression such as “People running for cover” has to do with something insecure. They need a protection. While the expression “They came with their tanks and their planes” shows the scared situation because the word ‘tank’ deals with damage or destroying something. The expression “You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our schools” also proves that the people are very cruel because they burn their properties.

Register, Social Relation, and Power Relation behind Discourse

In SFL, the term register is the main construct to functional linguists to model context. Register refers to properties within a language variety that associate that language with a given situation. Register differences are three-dimensional: tenor, field, and mode. Tenor refers to the roles of the participants in an interaction. It answers the question: “Who are participating and what is their relative status or power?” Secondly, field is concerned with the purpose and subject-matter of the communication. Field answers the question: “What is happening?” “What is the activity?” “What is the text/multimedia about?” Meanwhile mode refers to the channel of communication. It answers the questions: “What is the language doing?”

Tenor realized in “We will not go down” describes some unique participants. The composer avoided to mention who the participants are whether they are Palestinians or Israelis. However, without naming the participant, it can be analyzed through the tenor of discourse. Moreover, the release of the song also gained a critique from Israeli politician. Certainly, there is something has to do with them in the lyric although it is not mentioned directly. To make it clearer, see the analysis of tenor as follows.

In the lyric, Heart uses the word “people” in people running for cover. The word ‘people’ refers to Palestinians because the song is addressed to support them. Here Heart looked at the situation by using the third person point of view. It means that he doesn’t get involved in the story. Meanwhile he also uses the word ‘they’ in ‘they came with their tanks and their planes’ which refers to Israelis. Although it is not stated clearly, people in general have known who did that. Therefore this word might be one of the reasons why Israeli politicians condemn this song.

Besides that, he also uses the word such as ‘women and children’. What those words actually mean? Here, he wants to show that many innocent Palestinian women and children were murdered as casualties. In this line, Heath still uses the third person point of view. However, he uniquely changes his point of view in the refrain. Why he did so in the line “we will not do down”, “our spirit will never die”, or in the lyric “our mosque, and our homes and our schools”? The reason has to do with solidarity. He chose the second person point of view to give more power because Heart wants to shows he also feels what Palestinians suffer. He wanted to give much more passion by using the word ‘we’ or “our”. In addition, Heart actually persuades the listeners to support Palestinians not to go down. Meanwhile he also changed the word like “they” in the previous lyric into “you” in “you can burn up” to refer Israeli Militant. Now, it has been so clear why Israelis dislike the song.

Heart also added the participant like “you” in “you can still hear that voice through the smoky haze” to gain the listeners’ attention because the use of ‘you’ here is addressed to the listeners of the song. He also included the word leaders besides. In this case, he intends to criticize what the leaders do in the lyric line “while the so-called leaders of countries afar debated on who’s wrong or right”.

Here the power relation is engaging many people. Heart addressed the song to listeners and anyone related to Gaza war. The power relation between listeners and the composer is equal and close because Heart is not a leader; he is just an ordinary man or a common civilian who cannot do anything. Here, he only invites the listeners to support and understand what was happening in Gaza. Therefore it is obvious that the song actually does not influence much to stop the war, but it is only a song which support and give motivation to the casualties of the war.

Another power relation is found among the composer and anyone related to Gaza war; Palestinians, Israelis, and leaders. The relation between the composer and Palestinian is close and equal. It is shown in the words “we” and “our”. While the composer and Israelis are distant and equal. It is proven by the word “you” and the conflict between Israelis and the composer. At last, the composer and the leaders are distant and unequal because the leaders have high power than him.

Field realized in “We will not go down” is about the war between Palestinians and Israelis. The song describes what was happening in Gaza. It is clearly shown that the lyric tells the listeners how the war was occurring, who suffered the people, and what was the impact of the war. “A blinding flash of white light lit up the sky over Gaza tonight” line shows us a metaphor of bombing in Gaza. It uses the word “tonight” which is close to “something dark” to give a scary sense of the war. “People running for cover” tells explicitly that many people were insecure so they need to find a cover. While “Not knowing whether they’re dead or alive” describes that the people in Gaza have dead-sense because they have suffered from their long pains.

In the second couplet, the first line, “They came with their tanks and their planes with ravaging fiery flames”, directly shows that many tanks and planes are attacking Palestinians. Then, it is added by “And nothing remains, just a voice rising up in the smoky haze”. Here Heart uses a contradiction between something exist and something not. He describes that the result of the war left nothing, but it only left suffer from the casualties.

In the refrain, Heart start by emphasizing the words which support Palestinians “We will not go down”, while he also states the weak people in Gaza who cannot do anything; “in the night without a fight”. By expressing those, Heart actually intends to make everybody pity to them. He also adds more emphasis how cruel the aggression resulted which is found in “You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our schools”. However, Heart shows his support again twice by saying “But our spirit will never die” and the second “We will not go down”.

The following couplet, Heart begins to focus on women and children’s issue. In the line ”Women and children alike murdered and massacred night after night”, he directly brings explicitly the victims of the war. While “While the so-called leaders of countries afar debated on who’s wrong or right” line shows that Heart comes to criticize the leaders who cannot help to solve the war. It is shown by the adding “so-called”. Here, he intends to say that what the leaders do is useless.

The last couplet, Heart tends to emphasize the people’s pains resulted from the war. Even he emphasizes almost on the whole of the couplet. From the first line “But their powerless words were in vain”, the second line “And the bombs fell down like acid rain”, the third one “But through the tears and the blood and the pain”, and the last “You can still hear that voice through the smoky haze” are expressed to show how the people suffer.

Something interesting why Heart is claimed as a follower of any extreme religion is because he stated the word like “mosque” in his lyric. Perhaps, many people claim him from that point of view. However, there are other possibilities derived from the choice. It is difficult to describe the situation in Gaza. By using the word “mosque”, he hopes he can describe it better.

The last metafunction applied in this analysis is mode. Mode has to do with the channel of the language. Because, it is a song, obviously it uses the spoken language. However, the song is also spread in the video form so that it describes more deatail rather than only listening to the song. The kind of song is a humanitarian song which persuades people to care and give their sympathy to the casualties of Palestinians. It also possibly to gives more power to the listeners to save Palestine because the song was broadcasted by several countries in the world and played as the back-sound of the Gaza war news program.

Conclusion

Based on the above discussion, the result shows that “We will not Go Down” is a sad song which describes what was happening in Gaza. In this case, the composer explicitly condemns the Israeli aggressions in Gaza. He intends to give his full support and persuade the listeners to give their sympathy for the casualties of the war. He also implies that the participants (Israeli) told in the lyric have no good behavior. He, furthermore, persuades the listeners by showing his close relationship with Palestinians in contrast with Israeli and the leaders which is far.

The song is only a humanitarian song which describes the situation in Gaza and he intends to give and gain supports for Palestinians. Such song actually does not have a big power because the composer is not from the high position. However, by gaining many listeners and supports from several countries by showing the video and the song, it turns out more powerful to make the people follow what he feels and what he expresses.

Thompson, Cathy. 2002. A Critical Discourse Analysis of World Music as the `Other’ in Education. Research Music and education Journal. Vol. 19 no. 1 14-21. Available online at http://rsm.sagepub.com/content/19/1/14.abstract. Accessed on 24 June 2012.